Beginnings
On October 28th, 2002, a forum board on TheForce.net was created for Bloomington, IN. The very first post was made by Brian Brosmer, aka NorvelleJedi05. From there Brosmer worked very hard trying to gather more Star Wars fans for fun and conversation, holding meeting at local book stores such as Borders and Barnes & Nobles. The boards were at the time used for communication between locals however Brosmer seemed to be the only constant member of the group. Then in November of 2002 John Newton (aka deepbluejedi) joined up and a discussion about what kind of name would be given to Bloomington fan club insued. In the end it was Newton who came up with our current name, The Hoosier Alliance.
Fast forward to November 2003, when Mike Weber and Sara Ballard attended their very first meeting with Brosmer held at Barnes & Noble. Soon after Eric Stuckey joined them for the first official meeting of the Hoosier Alliance. On May 25th, 2004, the Hoosier Alliance had a election to promote a member to Chapter Representative status. The race was between Brosmer and Stuckey, with Stuckey winning in the end. Stuckey has also held and is currently holding the position of President of the Hoosier Alliance.
The club became a official chapter of TheForce.Net on July 3rd, 2004, and the club was well on its way, forging lifetime friendships and contiuing to encourage the love of Star Wars in Bloomington. By this time the Hoosier Alliance had eight regular members, though Brosmer did leave the HA in 2004.
Over the years the HA have attended several Star Wars events as a group, such as:
- Collectible releases at local merchants that were tied to Episode II and III
- Celebration III (held in Indianapolis in April of 2005)
- Various movie releases, both Star Wars and otherwise
The HA also organized events of our own, such as:
- Partnering with Best Buy and WZPL Radio to host a Original Trilogy on DVD release party. This release party was actually the only one of its kind in Indiana, as Bloomington was the only Indiana city to be recognized as a official Lucasfilm sanctioned event. The release party was a huge success, with over 350 people attending.
- Partnering with Walmart to host Revenge of the Sith on DVD and Star Wars video game release parties.
- Partnering with The Game Preserve in 2008 for a charity food drive, raising 6 barrels of food for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
- And in 2009, the Hoosier Alliance partnered with the Indianapolis chapter of the 501st Bloodfin garrison to help the Bloomington Wonderlab Science Museum host its "Star Wars Day", a chance for kids and their families to come in and experience the wonders of Star Wars through science and fun. The HA held trivia contests with various prizes, and two of the members (Chris Brooks (aka RC) and Bryan Vance) worked together on a unique idea: they had the children come up with a story using Star Wars toys, which Brooks then took and made into a comic book for the kids in attendance.
Though Barnes & Noble booksellers had always been kind, in 2004 the group moved their monthly meetings to Avalon on Pete Ellis Drive. The location was ideal due to the private meeting rooms that Avalon allowed us to use for free, and also because Avalon was conveniently located near the Indiana University campus. When Avalon decided to move its business to Elletsville in 2007, the group made the tough decision not to stay with them and decided to move our meetings to The Game Preserve. With its downtown location on the square and large meeting area, The Game Preserve serves as a excellent place to hold our meetings.
Over the last 7 years the group has gained and lost members (currently the group has members from age 8 to 50), but one constant has always remained: being a group of friends who love to get together and hang out who happen to also rather like Star Wars. :)